Congress Overseer Subpoenas Kerry On Benghazi

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Washington (AFP) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was slapped with a subpoena Friday by Congress’s main oversight panel demanding he testify about how the Obama administration responded after a deadly 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya.

House Government Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa announced the subpoena in a tweet, saying he requires that Kerry testify on May 21.

“It is because the State Department has failed to meet its legal obligations that I have issued a subpoena to Secretary Kerry,” Issa wrote.

The move comes after a conservative group on Wednesday published a White House email it had obtained via a legal challenge and which critics said shows an attempt to put a political spin on the assault.

In the email three days after the September 11, 2012 assault, Obama’s deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes told Susan Rice — at the time U.S. envoy to the United Nations — to blame the attack on local anger in Benghazi over an anti-Muslim Internet video.

It has since become clear that the attack on the mission, which cost the lives of four Americans, including ambassador Chris Stevens, was planned by armed militants.

Republicans including Issa, House Speaker John Boehner and Senator Lindsey Graham have argued that the White House misled Americans about what happened, particularly in the weeks after the attack, which occurred at the height of the U.S. presidential race won by incumbent Barack Obama.

Issa demanded administration officials release any and all documents related to Benghazi.

“The State Department is not entitled to delay responsive materials because it is embarrassing or implicates senior officials,” Issa wrote.

On Thursday the White House dismissed Republican pressure on the issue, saying critics were seeking to “politicize a tragedy” and uncover a conspiracy where none existed.

50 Responses to Congress Overseer Subpoenas Kerry On Benghazi

Why an inflammatory headline? Hasn’t this week had enough meaningless, gratuitous racist innuendo? How does a Congressional committee chair, however partisan his actions may seem to the (AFP?) author, justify describing him as an “overseer”? Not to criticize AFP for this hyperbole is to accept a double standard!

Congress provides oversight. I guess he could have made up a word like “oversighter,”but overseer is the proper word. You are the one who jumped to the slavery connotation. Whose mind is in the gutter here?

Real Americans would want to discover the truth of the Benghazi cover-up, because that is what it is…………No matter your Party affiliation, these situations must never happen again, for all of our sakes.

I am a real American. At least my passport says so. My ancestors have been here long enough to have served on the correct side in the Civil war. There was and is no Benghazi cover-up. No conspiracy. There is merely the fevered musings and incoherent mutterings of desperate wing nuts.

Yes this should never happen again, so were the 29 recommendations made by State Department Accountability Review Board on Benghazi implemented? Has Congress allocated more funds to improve Security where needed? Have we worked with the host countries where are embassies and consulates are to ensure they are capable of protecting our personnel? Have we improved communication of our CIA, FBI etc.? Those are what we should be focused on. Exactly what are they covering up and WHY? Using the death of 4 Americans as a Campaign Tool is beneath contempt.

Obama was not re-elected by the majority of Americans because Bin Ladin was killed on his watch or because the American people thought Al Qaeda has been made ineffective. Benghazi had no impact on the election, whether it was spontaneous or planned Al Qaeda attack. The majority of Americans re-elected Obama because we REJECTED Republicans “Trickle Down Economics” policies, Republican Foreign policies, Republicans refusing to separate State and Church, Republicans policies on Social Issues, Republicans wanting to dismantle Social Security & Medicare, Republicans disregarding and demeaning views on the needs of the middle class and the poor. So yes Republicans using the death of 4 Americans as a Campaign Tool is beneath contemp.

Definitely won’t be the party of liars and cover-ups as the current administration is. Lets see most transparent government lie, keeping your doctor and health care plan lies., fast and furious cover-up, IRS cover-up, Benghazi cover-up, campaigning on how bad using the executive order is, then using it to by-pass our duly elected congress. Picking and choosing which duly passed laws of this country will be enforced and which ones won’t be, changing laws willy-nilly. Won’t be the party of those things.

No it won’t be the Republican Party of liars, fear and hate mongers. Who care nothing for the middle class and the poor and who are puppets to the Koch Brothers. Have a nice evening – no longer participating in your delusions.

I don’t own anybody. Is this your typical response to someone you disagree with? Just call them names, accuse them of terrible things. Is this your way of trying to get people to shut up and not exercise their right of free speech? Won’t work with me comrade. I earned my rights and won’t let a racist individual take them from me or scare me away from using them.

No, not at all, just pointing out the facts. You come on this sight to instigate with lies. And frankly we are all fed up with republican lies. We are tired of you guys hiding behind religion and family values.
The majority of the people that post on this sight are caring, loving, faithful and want a government for the people, not for corporate and oil barons.

I don’t tell any lies, I don’t make up any numbers. I don’t hide behind anything. The majority of people in the world are caring loving, faithful and want a government for the people. There are just different opinions on how to do that. You seem to hate corporations. They supply jobs, services, health care for employees, retirements for employees. Of course they want to make a profit. Without profit there is no corporation or share holders. You blame “oil barons”. They provide services and opportunities for employees too. Remembering back some, the price of gas for my car was very reasonable until Henry Kessinger told the arabs, the US would pay what they wanted for oil. We are not allowed to use oil produced in the US. We can’t even use the oil from Alaska, it is sent to Japan. The politicians are responsible for the high oil and gas prices, not the corporations.
You talk about Republican lies, how about Obama’s lies about health care, the IRS and Benghazi scandals? The last time I looked he is a Democrat.

You repeat exactly what you hear. I don’t hate corporation, did I say I hate corporations or oil companies? I am an employer and have been for over 33 years. Your problem is you don’t read properly you hen peck at statements and leave out the facts.

Fact: If you are on social security, vote democrat.
Fact: If you are on medicare or medicaid vote democrat.
Fact: If you are a women, vote democrat.
Fact: If you are a college student vote democrat.
Fact: If you are an American and have ancestors that are here undocumented vote democrat.
Fact: If you are gay/lesbian vote democrat.
Because the republican have been working hard against you.

Fact: Obamacare, you are blaming the wrong person, it was the Insurance companies that cancelled policies, not the administration – no lie there!

IRS: It has been proven that more democratic organization were looked into then republican. And why should any of them be non profit?

Benghazi: You guys are pissing in the wind and I can hardly wait when it spews back at your face.

SO you republicans can keep harping over nothing and do nothing as you have…oh wait a minute, just got a conservative call, Newt is out and they are going meet in big pow wow and come up with a better health plan and balance the budget oh my six year later they want to work for you, how sweet is that.

We will see you there. Enjoy your Obamacare which will be coming back to haunt the GOP in November. Did you see the jobs report yesterday? 288,000 private sector jobs created in March. Unemployment down to 6.3%- Obamas approval ratings are surging again. See you there, sucker.

playing with numbers again? Did you see the number of Americans out of work. Its over 92 million. The unemployment rate doesn’t reflect those people that have given up trying to find work, or the millions on medicaid, or disability. The economy growth is a 0.1%. after billions spent by Obama on the economy. Health care premiums at at a all time high now. Health care deductibles are higher than ever. What is the % of people that have actually paid obamacare premiums? What is the % of people that did not have insurance before obamacare have insurance now. The approval rates have surged all the way to 44%. WOW. See what the approval rates will be next week when the Benghazi cover-up email are included. Did you see the % of people that believe Obama is a liar? That is something like 61%. Just stay in your fantasy world and wait for November.

Exactly, Granny! We must not forget that this year 199 Gopbags voted TO DEFAULT on the FULL FAITH AND CREDIT OF THE United States of America… Had it not been for Dems and 28 repubs we would be in DEFAULT, today!

Repubs are afraid of the real history of what they have not done and forget that these are the facts!

Up til now we were having fairly reasonable exchange of ideas, until this last post. The purpose of referencing Bush was in response to your post where you said “Who would vote for someone that has proven he won’t protect our people?”

And after it is all out in the open, and the facts are still the same, what do you presume we do with Issa? And explain to me why whether they were killed by militants at spur of the moment or whether it was a planned attack, does it make a difference, when the republican cut the budget, they bought that problem, as they will buy many future problems, because of their ideology. And yes you are correct in saying … “these situations must never happen again, for all of our sakes.” No more 911’s anywhere!

These were talking points for Sunday morning talk shows. They were wrong but so what. These talking points were not policy. They weren’t used for very long, when people got on the ground and saw that it was a planned attack. They didn’t lead to the Iraq war like Bush’s lies to Congress and the American people did. They didn’t lead to any major Congressional or Administration decisions. What did these talking points actually do?

I’ve debunked every GOP-created “scandal” they’ve spouted since President Obama took office. Benghazi, like those other “scandals”, is a settled matter. The GOP keep trying to milk this milkless goat to derive political gain. The truth is that the GOP are trying to cover their own asses in regards to Benghazi. Remember that the House GOP successfully cut $160 million from the State Department’s embassy and consulate security budget in 2011. In 2012, those cuts reached $330 million and for last year, another $100 million. The real scandal here is the Republicans’ zeal for budget-cutting led to consulates and embassies being lightly defended. And, that light defense resulted in 4 American deaths on 11 September, 2012.
And, don’t get me started on the dozen consulates and embassies that were attacked during the Bush 43 administration with absolutely NO outrage, hearings or subpeonas. Oh, I forgot for a second: a Republican was in the White House during that time….my bad 🙁 ssmdh
And, before paulyz and his Firebagger (Libertarian) comrades get too far with their “both parties are the same” nonsense: that argument is now known as “false equivalence”. The GOP and Libertarians spout that pathetically untrue talking point for two reasons, neither of them good: first, it makes them feel better about the fact that their parties are Fascist (GOP) or Fascism-suborning (Libertarians) and, second, they use it to justify continuing to vote Republican, using the bogus theory that, because “both parties are the same, I might as well vote for Republicans” 🙁 ssmdh
This Non-Affiliated voter, who hasn’t belonged to a political party since 1990, urges the somewhat-sane faction of the GOP, the Progressives and Moderates, to vote for the group of politicians who TRULY represent them now: Democrats. Yes: Democrats today are the GOP “Progs” and “Mods” of yesteryear. Progs and Mods should also know that they’re two of the six subgroups of Republicans who are considered to be “Useful Idiots” by the rich, old white male Conservative power structure of the party. The other four are women, minorities, Firebaggers and Teaidiots….

Funding for security wasn’t the only problem. And by claiming that the attack was a pre-planned and coordinated assault, the Republicans can only point the finger of blame at themselves

The CIA has always used informants in hostile nations or organizations to keep it appraised of events and plans in those nations and organizations. The CIA had no such informants in Libya at the time.

The reason could possibly be the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame by the administration of George W. Bush. Plame had a network of informants in the Mideast who kept her up to date on weaponry advances in the region. Those would be the WMD Bush and his puppets claimed were all over the place but couldn’t find. When Bush’s simpletons outed Plame, they also disclosed her operation. How many of her informants are still alive is unknown.

Any would-be-informant in Libya or other Mideast nation would be hesitant to join up with the CIA when his/her identity could be revealed by the very nation they were trying to help.

Basically the “scandal” is that the administration did not have a crystal ball to know on Sunday morning what the intelligence community did not fill in until Monday. The FACT is that the Benghazi attack COINCIDED with protests over the video that had occurred in several Muslim countries (and even one Western nation, among its Muslim community), so UNTIL MORE DATA came in, the most reasonable explanation was that Benghazi was one more of those protests, POSSIBLY infiltrated by terrorists taking advantage of the existing chaos. So it’s LYING to make an educated guess until more is known? That would make 80 percent of what Bush 43 told the public not just lies but BALD FACED lies, because we later found out that the ALREADY knew they were not telling the truth.

Then-Secretary Clinton is condemned because she said “what difference does it make?” in the hearings, but her meaning was, what difference does it make WHILE you are trying to defend yourself, what the attacker’s motive is, NOT as they distorted her words, what difference did the deaths of four brave Americans make. She did acknowledge that LATER, it makes a difference what the cause is, in order to determine how to fight back against terrorism, which is common sense. And when the facts about the attack (which may very well have been timed to mislead us in the beginning about who was involved, to catch us off guard) DID come out, the story was updated: NOT because the previous story had been a lie, but because the information had been incomplete.

As for the “military being ordered away,” that is absolute nonsense. The fact is that consulates, where ambassadors seldom visit, do not have as much security as embassies. There was no reason to suspect that the ambassador would need more than the token bodyguards who accompanied him, until the attack was already under way. And as has been pointed out, there was insufficient time then for reinforcements to arrive from their nearest bases. And don’t forget who cut the budgets for embassy and consulate security!

They are creating a fictitious conspiracy where there was, and is, none. Except the conspiracy to tear down a President and his administration for purely partisan reasons.